Why Daddy?
by fanfictionlover101
Summary: Dudley Dursley is forced to think about why he was so mean to Harry.


Why Daddy?

A/N: Please review :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Harry Potter. *Sniffle*.

Summary: Dudley Dursley is forced to think about why he was so mean to Harry.

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"Daddy, were you like me when you were younger?" I looked down at my seven-year-old daughter wondering how I should answer her.

"Not really Jasmine." Maybe that would hold her off for a little while. Mentally I crossed my fingers.

"What were you like?" By now, Jasmine had climbed up onto my lap and was watching me like a hawk. No getting away now then huh?

"Well, first off I'm going to tell you that I'm not proud at all about what I was like and I've changed a lot since then. Your Uncle Harry helped me with that. I'm not the same person." I paused and thought about my feelings after the dementor attack when Harry and I were fifteen and how he saved me when he shouldn't have.

"I grew up in a home where my parents gave me everything I wanted, just like they do to you." Jasmine's eyes grew bigger with excitement as she remembered the game boy that she had just received from her grandparents.

"Wow! But why do you say no all the time when I ask you for stuff?"

"Because it's not a good thing to get everything you want. I was spoiled from the day I was born and I had to have everything and the best of everything, or at least what my parents thought was the best." I was just wondering how to best continue when she told me what she wanted to know more about.

"When does Uncle Harry come in?" Unlike me, Jasmine had grown up actually knowing my cousin. I was determined to set things right somehow.

"One year on Hallowe'en, when Uncle Harry and I were both just one years old, his parents were killed by Voldemort, a dark wizard." Oops. Did I forget to mention that my daughter is a witch and knows more about the wizarding world than I ever did?

"Professor Dumbledore brought him to live with me and my parents to keep him safe. My mother really didn't want anything to do with her sister, my Aunt, but Professor Dumbledore persuaded her to take Uncle Harry in. My mother continued to look after me and paid a lot of attention to me but she now had another child to look after so it was less attention than before. I was upset and angry about this and thought that maybe if I didn't want him there, she would get rid of him. I started by poking and pinching him but that didn't work so I went to hitting and even biting him. But he never left. As we got older, my parents mistreated him more and more by making him do chores around the house such as mowing the lawn, tending the garden, painting the fence, making meals. I was never told to do anything, so I didn't."

I came out of my stupor to find my daughter staring at me, "You did that to Uncle Harry? But why? He's so amazing!"

Ring. Phew! Saved by the bell, or rather, the phone. I picked up Jasmine with one arm and walked over to the phone while she wiggled and squirmed, trying to get away.

"Hello?"

"Hi honey! I just wanted to know how you and Jasmine are doing while I'm gone."

"We're fine Melissa. I'm just telling her some stories about my childhood." I relished the voice of my wife of ten years. She had left on a business trip a couple days ago and I really missed her. "When do you think you'll be home?"

"Hopefully by tomorrow. I really miss you and Jas."

"I miss you too. Do you want to talk to the squirt then?"

"Sure."

"Hey I'm not a squirt Daddy! Hi Mom..." I put Jasmine down and went to make lunch while they talked. Grilled cheese sandwiches and a glass of milk.

"Jasmine, you need to say goodbye. Lunch is ready!"

"Okay Dad! I gotta go Mom. Lunch is ready...I love you too...Okay...Bye!"

While we ate, Jasmine told me all about her visit to the Potter's and the prank that James had played on her. I thought about how to continue my story. It was almost guaranteed that she would want to know more when we finished eating. Indeed, no sooner had I started to clear the table when she asked me for more of my story.

I really hoped she didn't hate me when this was over. "I made some friends. These friends were like me, spoiled and stupid. We started bullying other kids at school. Nobody messed with us. We were Dudley's Gang and I was known as Big D. We picked on everybody. No one was safe from us. Especially not Harry. I knew he was smarter than me because of the praise that he got from the teachers and I hated that they weren't praising me. They seemed to notice that he wasn't being treated right at home."

"How wasn't he being treated right Daddy?"

"My parents, mostly Grandpa but Grandma too, made him sleep in the cupboard under the stairs, didn't feed him enough, didn't care when he did something good and never got him any real presents for holidays or his birthday. If he did something better than me, he got in trouble. I didn't help either. My parents taught me that I was all that mattered and to treat others who weren't me, badly unless they'd get me somewhere.

"I never really cared why they treated Harry like they did. Like I said, I was all that mattered to me but just before he turned eleven, he got his Hogwarts letter. My dad burned it. The letters kept coming though and we left. I started wondering why someone wanted to talk to my no-good cousin so badly. Then I found out that he was a wizard and that that was why Harry was treated so badly. When he left for school, I was so happy that I wouldn't have to see him again until June. We arrived home and Dad locked Harry's stuff in the cupboard and gave him my second room, where all the stuff that I never used was kept. With Harry's wand gone, I started bullying him again, only harder. He looked happier and I didn't want him to be happy.

"With each passing year, he came back happier until after his fourth year. I didn't think much of it and kept bullying the kids around the neighbourhood, ignoring him because he had started disappearing everyday just as I did. Harry was more preoccupied and I kept hearing nightmares that he was having so eventually, we were in an alley together because he had followed me home and had decided to get me angry, which was easy for him at the time. I teased him about the nightmares he was having and he pointed his wand at me. Suddenly the lights went out and we were attacked by dementors, things that used to guard Azkaban" I started to explain what they did but once more my daughter displayed more knowledge about the wizarding world.

"They suck out your soul if they kiss you and they make you feel sad. How did you get away?"

"Harry used a spell to get rid of them but one had gotten near enough that I knew what I feared most. I feared being bullied and for the first time, I thought about how others felt around me. Harry left a little later while I was out with my parents so I never had a chance to tell him how I had really felt."

"How did you really feel? Did he come back?"

"Yes, he came back. In June. He looked even more depressed than ever before. We didn't really see each other at all. But I didn't beat up so many kids or people. Then Professor Dumbledore came to get him and revealed to me that I had not been raised as well as I should have been. My attitude was horrible and he also informed me that Harry had not been treated well. That was when I really started looking back and seeing all the terrible things I had been doing. And wondering why Harry didn't get back at me for any of it. I felt terrible. My parents had abused him and he had been nothing but nice and respectful to other people. And nothing could compare what I did. I turned everyone I could against him. He didn't have friends until Hogwarts because I scared them off.

"He came back just once more after that. I decided to try and make up for some of the things I'd done so I made him a cup of tea but I was too ashamed and too scared to knock and give it to him by hand. When he left, he told Hestia that we all thought he was just a waste of space. I finally gained the courage to tell him that he wasn't. But there wasn't much else I could tell him. I had told him something that part of me wanted to take back because I was so embarrassed. The other part of me was happy that I had finally told him and it seemed to mean a lot to him. I had had a lot of time to think over the past two years and I had decided to turn my life around. When we went into hiding, I learned as much about the wizarding world as I could much to the disapproval of my parents, although I think my Mother was happy that I was learning. And she gained knowledge from what I learned when she was around. After the war, I sent him a letter and he replied and we decided to meet. After all those years, we met again as adults and started all over, with a very sincere apology from me. And that is why we spend a lot of time with them."

"Daddy, you're so amazing," Jasmine finally spoke from my lap where she had sat down again to hear the rest of my story. "It would have been really hard to apologize after all that. I'm proud of you and I'm glad you're my Daddy."

I smiled. I guess I had gone something right after all.


End file.
